“Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spend enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.”
I came across this quote the other day as I was struggling with this service. How do I talk about the blessing of animals, as I have done many times before. The quotation suggested that maybe what I need to really do is spend time with, or to reflect on my time, with them. So here goes.
I was out with Molly, her best friend Ronnie and his companion Susan the other day. We were walking round John Leigh Park, the dogs were chasing squirrels, each other and wrestling a bit. Other dogs often join in, when they do. It was a bit of a riot the other day, about 10 of them chasing each other around. They were having a ball. It sometimes gets a bit rough for poor Ronnie, as he is just developing which causes a few issues with other male dogs, something he is learning to take care of. Molly, despite her size, seems to have resolved that a while ago.
When Molly and Ronnie play with a ball together, they get so excited and caught up in things that the ball gets dropped and often lost. There is something in the nature of life in this. Well, the other day they were playing and wrestling and chasing, they dropped the ball and a cocker spaniel wandered up and took it, before trotting off. The ball was gone and I just thought, such is life. We carried on walking as did the other dog, walking the opposite way round the circle. After a while the cocker spaniel was heading home with his family, Just before they did he came over to Molly and Ronnie and dropped the ball at their feet and trotted off home. It blew me a way a little, brought a beautiful broad beaming smile to my face. Myself and Susan laughed to ourselves and I reflected that we were taught a beautiful lesson about the Kingdom of God, alive here and now, or as I prefer to call it, the kin-dom of love.
Dog’s live by and from their nose. They take in the world in rich ways, we humans cannot. They come to life in the richness of things, it is something to behold. They know what e. e. cummings termed the “smelloftheworld”, their olfactory perception is incredible. They can teach us how to experience the world in new and wonderful ways. We sanitise so much of life, by killing off our smell. I have noticed in my time with Molly that my olfactory perception has increased. She has helped me bring to life my lesser used senses, which has enabled my sixth sense to come to greater life and thus brought me closer to God. I suspect that this is what Meister Eckhart may have been hinting at. The soul of animals and their soulfulness generally is helping me to open my own soul and thus bringing me closer to the eternal soul, what Emerson called the Oversoul.
When I look into Molly’s eyes I see a soul so alive, with such feeling and curiosity. So sensitive and in tune with her needs and at ease with herself. She loves to make friends with all she meets and is a real friend to life. She loves to welcome people and bless them when they arrive. I see the same soul alive in people and other creatures too, so animated in their eyes. Of course the world animal is derived from animas, meaning to have a soul.
When we lose one of those souls from our lives, it breaks our hearts. Pet owners call it passing over the rainbow bridge. No doubt many who are here today will be remembering lost loved ones, who came into our lives, opened our hearts and touched our souls and then passed on. I know that Sharon and Helen’s beloved Vegas sadly died this week, he had been a grand old lad and was lovely with Molly when she was just a little puppy. The last time I was at the dog groomers I learnt that Collette, the groomer had just lost her labrador. It must have been so very difficult to pamper other pooches while her beloved had just died, although no doubt comfort came. She shared with me her beloved pets last few hours. I know that the sharing brought some comfort. I also know that the love they shared will be permanently etched on the soul of Collette and no doubt every little dog she grooms in the coming weeks will get that little bit more care and attention.
Despite their limited time in life, animals feel at home. This is something else that the animals can teach us, how to feel at home in our own skin. They do not suffer with this sense that they do not belong here, held back by insecurities and a sense of being wrong at the soul of them. They live from the sense of “Original Blessing” and not “Original Sin”, they are part of the creation that is good at the core of itself. They feel at home in their own bodies and a part of this world. For whatever reason so many people, at times at least, feel that they do not belong here. Surely it is our greatest yearning to feel at home in our own skin, at home here on earth. Oh how living with the animals reminds me of my place amongst animal things, amongst the family of things, it grounds me in my own soul and I feel at one with the one eternal soul.
When I despair at myself or this world and how humans can be so inhumane at times I am reminded of Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things”
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Or Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”, that reminds me of life’s simple but astonishing gifts. Whoever we are, and however we are, each of us has a place of welcome and honour “in the family of things”…
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
The wild geese flying over head remind me what it means to live in community, supporting one another and encouraging one another to keep on going, reminding me how much we need one another. Some have described them as being like the “Communion of Saints”, to me it is the “Kin-dom of Love” in full flight.
I have other affections for the birds around my house too. Molly doesn’t necessarily share my love as she loves to chase them as much as the squirrels. Two birds though have lifted my soul over the years. One was the scratty magpie that was happy in its magpie self, despite looking dishevelled and under fed, it didn’t seem bothered. It helped me through a difficult period of my personal life, when I was feeling less than my best. The other of course is the blackbird that I have had wonderful singing competitions with. We raise one another up and sing better than I dreamed possible. We lift up one another’s souls, or at least the blackbird does mine.
That blackbird sings the joy of living in all its mystery. Perhaps this is the greatest joy at the soul of animals, something we could all do well to remember. The soul of animal comes alive in their joy.
When I watch the dogs in the park playing together, they are in total bliss, in utter joy. How they run free and greet one another, how they roll and gently growl and play. How they seem able to judge one another’s size and age and physical capacity. They are clearly happy at play, they show it clearly. They speak in their tongues and they are utterly free. Isn’t this the soul alive.
It certainly brings me soul to life. Eckhart was so right. Every single creature is full of God, is filled with that spirit, their souls are alive. They tell their own story, by simply being themselves, by living their lives, as part of the blessing. I have learnt all I have to do is pay close attention to them, how they live and maybe I will never again have to prepare another sermon, although I hope this one was ok.
May we never forget that we belong here, that we have a place here amongst the family of things.
Below is a video devotion based on the material in this "Blogspot"
Beautiful. Thank you.
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